This invention relates to slurrying apparatus suitable for slurrying a feed liquid and a solid such as the bituminous sand containing hydrocarbons that is currently being mined in the Athabasca area of Alberta, Canada.
Hydrocarbons can conveniently be extracted from bituminous sand by techniques that utilize the special and possibly unique conditions existing in the sand. Although the interstices of the sand are largely filled with oil, the individual grains of sand are separated from the oil by a minute film of water. Because the water is in intimate contact with the sand grains and prevents the bitumen from adhering to the sand grains, bitumen and sand can be separated by tumbling with hot or even cold water and the thus separated bitumen treated by suitable hydrocarbon extraction processes.